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August 2, 2024, 5:20 PM
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Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Character.AI co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and some employees, are joining Google; Google has signed a non-exclusive agreement to use its tech  —  In a big move, Character.AI co-founder and CEO CEO Noam Shazeer is returning to Google after leaving the company in October 2021 to found the a16z-backed startup.
The Information:
Character.AI told staff that investors will be bought out at a valuation of ~2.5x its $1B 2023 valuation, and it plans to adopt open-source models for products  —  Google has agreed to pay a licensing fee to chatbot maker Character.AI for its models and will hire its cofounders and many of its researchers, the companies said.
More: Financial Times.  X: @hkarthik, @dylan522p, @amir, and @bryce.  Forums: Slashdot
New York Times:
The US DOJ sues TikTok, saying it collected children's data without parents' permission, knowingly let users under the age of 13 create accounts, and more  —  The Justice Department said that TikTok illegally collected children's data and knowingly allowed users under the age of 13 to create accounts.
Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
A look at Musk-backed America PAC's “Register to Vote” online campaign, which collects users' personal data in swing states, but does not help them register  —  If a voter in Michigan performs a search on Google, a somewhat shocking ad might pop up.
Gaby Del Valle / The Verge:
Trump says Zuckerberg called him after the assassination attempt and told Trump he wouldn't endorse a Democrat because he “respected” Trump's reaction that day  —  Former President Donald Trump has expressed a newfound fondness for Mark Zuckerberg after years of railing against him.
CNBC:
Intel shares fall 26% to close at $21.48 in their biggest drop since 1974, after the company reported a big earnings miss; Intel's market cap is now below $100B  —  Intel shares plunged the most in 50 years on Friday, reaching a price not seen since 2013, after the chipmaker reported …
Asa Hiken / Ad Age:
Google pulled an Olympics TV ad where a father uses Gemini to help his daughter write a personal letter to an athlete, after criticisms that the ad is tone-deaf  —  ‘Dear Sydney’ had been criticized for appearing tone-deaf to AI concerns  —  Google has pulled an ad from its Olympics' TV rotation …
Sean Michael Kerner / VentureBeat:
Stability AI announces Stable Fast 3D, a generative AI model for rapid 3D asset generation, says it can generate a 3D asset from a single image in 0.5 seconds  —  Not all that long ago, it used to be hard, really hard to generate 3D images.  It was a process that involved complex wireframes, complicated software and beefy hardware.
Pei Li / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple in recent months has demanded Tencent and ByteDance close loopholes used by their in-app creators to funnel users to external payment systems  —  - iPhone maker wants to close loopholes in mini-games payments  — Handling in-app purchases is a lucrative business for Apple
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Crypto lender Genesis and related companies complete their bankruptcy restructuring and begin distributing ~$4B in digital assets and cash to creditors  —  - Bitcoin creditors will receive 51% recovery on in-kind basis  — Genesis distributions come soon after Mt Gox repaid billions
Nathan Edwards / The Verge:
Surface Pro 11 review: OLED display is vibrant, Flex Keyboard is magic, hardware is solid, but it's costly, not all x86 apps run well, AI features are skippable  —  Microsoft's latest 2-in-1 is all in on Arm, and it's the closest the company's come to merging the power of a laptop with the battery life and flexibility of a tablet.
Forums: r/gadgets
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Infoblox and Eclypsium: since 2018, Russian hackers hijacked 35K+ registered domains using Sitting Ducks attacks that involve exploiting DNS configuration flaws  —  Threat actors have hijacked more than 35,000 registered domains in so-called Sitting Ducks attacks that allow claiming …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Nintendo reports Q1 revenue down 46.5% YoY to ~$1.65B, vs. ~$1.92B est., net profit down 55.3% YoY to ~$536M, and Switch sales down 46% YoY to 2.1M units  —  Nintendo on Friday reported revenue and profit that plunged in the company's fiscal first quarter, as sales of the ageing Switch console decline.
Akila Quinio / Financial Times:
Sources: Revolut has told staff it is launching a sale of up to $500M worth of existing shares at a $45B valuation; former employees are ineligible  —  Revolut has told staff it is launching a sale of up to $500mn worth of existing shares at a $45bn valuation, in a move that would cement …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:20 PM ET, August 2, 2024.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Joe Sonka / Louisville Public Media:
McClatchy enacts deep, nationwide layoffs, including at the Lexington Herald-Leader, Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer, and Idaho Statesman

Abid Rahman / The Hollywood Reporter:
Jimmy Kimmel says his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico had to stream on YouTube, skipping broadcast TV, due to ABC's fight with the FCC

New York Times:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill that prohibits social media platforms from offering addictive features to users under 16, the first such law in the US

More News

Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
UK shelves promised £800M for Edinburgh University exascale supercomputer and £500M for AI Research Resource, saying former government never allocated the funds
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
A profile of, and interview with, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner, who is building a reputation in Washington, DC, as a trusted expert on AI
The Canadian Press:
Study: a year after Meta blocked news content in Canada due to the Online News Act, Canadians' total engagement with news content on social media is down 43%
Tuvan Gumrukcu / Reuters:
Turkey blocks Instagram for failing to comply with “laws and rules”; a Turkish official said Instagram blocked condolence posts about Ismail Haniyeh's killing

Earlier Picks

Josh Sisco / Politico:
Sources: the US DOJ is investigating Nvidia's acquisition of Run:ai, a Tel Aviv-based startup that enables virtualization of GPUs, on antitrust grounds
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:
Intel extends the warranty for its boxed Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors by an additional two years, due to customers experiencing instability issues
Bill Donahue / Billboard:
Court filings: AI startups Suno and Udio respond to copyright lawsuits from major music labels, saying using proprietary music to train AI models is fair use
Bill Peters / MarketWatch:
Coinbase reports Q2 revenue up 105% YoY to $1.45B, vs. $1.39B est., a $36.2M net income, and forecasts subscription and services Q3 revenue below expectations
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple Q3 revenue: iPhone down 1% YoY to $39.30B, Mac up 2% YoY to $7.01B, iPad up 24% YoY to $7.16B, and Wearables, Home, and Accessories down 2% YoY to $8.10B
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Intel plans to cut 15%+ of its workforce, the majority by the end of 2024, as part of a $10B cost reduction plan and to suspend its dividend starting in Q4 2024
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